Pregnancy-leave change still unresolved

Wednesday

Dec 31, 2008 at 12:01 AMDec 31, 2008 at 12:25 PM

It's been a year since Barbara A. Sykes left the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, a high-profile casualty of a policy she championed that would have required employers to give more expectant mothers time off.

It's been a year since Barbara A. Sykes left the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, a high-profile casualty of a policy she championed that would have required employers to give more expectant mothers time off.

Not only is Sykes gone, but the policy, too, appears to be going nowhere fast.

Sykes, a former state legislator and candidate for auditor in 2006, didn't develop the policy to require all Ohio businesses with four or more employees to grant at least 12 weeks of paid or unpaid pregnancy leave.

However, after Gov. Ted Strickland appointed her as chairwoman of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission in August 2007, Sykes took up the issue with gusto.

She paid with her job.

As businesses lined up to oppose the policy, Strickland said he supported giving more women time off for pregnancies but wanted Sykes and other advocates to slow down to give businesses time to digest the idea.

Sykes resigned from the commission, effective last Dec. 31, after Strickland withdrew support for her nomination as she was to face a Senate panel. A year later, Strickland still is in a wait-and-see mode.

"The governor remains supportive of the concept, but given the state of the economy, he doesn't feel that this is the best time to move forward on this," said Amanda Wurst, a spokeswoman for Strickland.

Federal law already requires companies with 50 or more workers to give 12 weeks of family leave to employees who have been on the payroll for a year or more. The proposed Ohio policy would have applied to smaller businesses and to employees who just started their jobs.

Small businesses complained that the requirement would be another burden that could cause some to close or leave the state. Women's groups said expectant mothers shouldn't be penalized for working at smaller companies or for having had a job for less than a year.

Last December, a panel of legislators rejected the pregnancy-leave policy, saying the Ohio Civil Rights Commission had not done its homework in calculating the cost of the change.

At the time, Rep. Ross McGregor, the then-chairman of the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review, said he hoped the commission would come back after doing the math.

Tony Fiore of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, which had led opposition to the pregnancy-leave policy, said this week that the commission still hasn't presented any numbers on the potential cost.

"Any change is going to have some fiscal impact," Fiore said. "Our biggest concern is that the five-member commission was pushing something that substantially changes the statute. We thought that this is something the legislature should act on if anyone does."

After Strickland dropped Sykes from the commission, it has been down to four members with no permanent chairman. The acting chairman, Leonard Hubert, said work continues on the pregnancy-leave policy behind the scenes.

"The pregnancy rule will be just one of several items on our legislative agenda in the coming year," he said.

McGregor, a Springfield Republican, echoed Strickland in saying now's not the time for a new mandate on employers.

"If I were strategizing to revisit this issue, I could be looking at a time when the economy was better and when employment figures were more encouraging," said McGregor, who no longer leads the legislative panel.

Although Sykes' forceful advocacy forced her out of her $58,000 job as commission chairwoman, she said this week that she doesn't regret speaking out. Sykes remains the president and chief executive of the Ohio United Way, a position that paid her $107,000 in 2007.

"I called it as I saw it when I left (the commission)," Sykes said. "My position remains the same: that it's needed."

jnash@dispatch.com

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